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The Love of the Truth
No.1.
pp. 58 - 60
This subject with all its ramifications is as vast as the Truth itself, and no article or
series of articles could do it justice. It is, nonetheless, a very important subject and
deserving of our attention.
In Paul's second epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter 2: 9-13, we read of the
parousia of the man of sin, or better, the lawless one:
"Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and
lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this
cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they might
be damned (or judged) who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of
the Spirit and belief of the truth."
Here, as in similar passages, there is the contrast between the love of the Truth, and
the love of a lie. It is important to note that these folk upon whom comes the judgment of
believing a lie because they `received not the love of the truth'. It is not primarily a
question of receiving truth, but the desire to know it. It is evidently equally possible to
receive the love of a lie. We find those who `loveth and maketh a lie' classed with
"dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters" in Rev. 22: 15.
It is the intent of the heart which distinguishes the one from the other.
But, bad as all this is, the position becomes the more sinister when we discover that
failure to receive the love of the truth results in the condemnation to `believe the lie'.
There are, apart from this reference in this epistle to the Thessalonians, three other
Scriptures which speak of the lie.
The first of these is found in John's Gospel:
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it"
(John 8: 44).
When he speaks the lie, he speaks from (or `out of') his own, and this because he
stood not in the truth. Because he stood not in the truth, he is a manslayer from the
beginning. So soon as the human race began he was ready with his death-dealing lie, and
this because of his previous apostasy from the truth (apostasis has the root thought of
`standing from').